Bild Plus: Saygin Yalcin: How to make it.
– English version below –
DUBAI-UNTERNEHMER AUS BREMER PLATTENBAU GIBT TIPPS
So habe ich meine erste Million verdient
Saygin Yalcin vor dem Haus in Bremen, in dem er aufgewachsen ist (Foto: Sandra Beckefeldt).
Bremen/ Dubai – Früher wurde er in seiner Bremer Schule gemobbt, weil er sich keine Markenklamotten leisten konnte. Jetzt ist er Multi-Millionär in Dubai! In BILD verrät Saygin Yalcin (33) seine besten Tipps zur ersten Million.
„Mein Lehrer sagte damals immer ich würde höchstens Gebrauchtwagenhändler werden. Nun, er hatte Recht“, sagt der Selfmade-Mann grinsend, der jetzt über 1000 Mitarbeiter beschäftigt.
Er kommt aus einem Plattenbau in der Bremer Neustadt, schaffte es von ganz unten zum größten Autohändler der Arabischen Emirate. Yalcin: „Über unsere Website SellAnyCar.com haben wir drei Millionen Autos angekauft, im Wert von 15 Milliarden US-Dollar. Die versteigern wir.“
Doch wie hat er das geschafft?
Hier kommen seine 12 Top-Tipps
►Nie aufgeben
„Als ich 14 Jahre alt war, verteilte ich Flyer für Supermärkte in Bremen. Weil ich nicht zuverlässig war, feuerten sie mich nach kurzer Zeit. Bei ‚Burger King‘ wurde ich als Kassierer gleich abgelehnt, aber ich habe nie aufgegeben!“
Mittlerweile fliegt er nur mit Privatjet zu Terminen wie jetzt zur „Givenchy“-Show auf der Pariser Fashion Week.
►Branche kennenlernen
„Ich sammelte schon als junger Erwachsener jede einzelne Information, die ich über Unternehmen bekommen konnte. Ich hatte 2000 Visitenkarten in meinem Jugendzimmer.“
►Gute Kontakte
„Schnell habe ich verstanden, dass der Aufbau eines Netzwerks der Schlüssel zum Erfolg ist. Dazu sollte man erstmal herausfiltern, wer die wichtigsten Führungskräfte in seiner Branche sind und diese Menschen ganz gezielt ansprechen. Es hat funktioniert!“
►In unbekannte Kreise wagen
„Ich beendete die Schule und zog nach New York, um meinen Kreis an Menschen zu erweitern. Denn dort kannte ich niemanden. Ich ging zu einer Sprachschule, um mein Englisch zu verbessern, während ich abends weitere Führungskräfte recherchierte und Visitenkarten sammelte.“
►Leidenschaft erkennen
„Zurück in Deutschland suchte ich einen Studienplatz. Alle haben mir etwas Solides empfohlen: Medizin oder Jura. Ich entschied mich für plastische Chirurgie, scheiterte aber schon am Vorpraktikum. Mein Vater gab mir den Hinweis: Studiere etwas, für das du eine Leidenschaft hast. Wir als Familie werden immer hinter dir stehen. Das hat mich stark gemacht!“
►Von sich selbst überzeugt sein
„Die Ratschläge meines Vaters habe ich immer in meinem Kopf. Nur dadurch fühle ich mich stark genug Anführer zu sein. Ich traue mich Vieles zu wagen. Es hat mich selbstständig und zuversichtlich gemacht.“
►Schlaf ist nebensächlich
„Mein größter Zeitverschwender ist Schlaf. Ich versuche so wenig wie möglich zu schlafen. Nur natürliche Gründe hindern mich daran komplett darauf zu verzichten. Wenn man bedenkt, dass ein Smartphone eine Stunde braucht, um sich zu regenerieren und 23 Stunden arbeiten kann, und unser Körper braucht sieben Stunden, um 17 Stunden bewusst zu arbeiten, bin ich ziemlich enttäuscht von uns.“
►Verliere nie den Überblick
„Meine Tage sind normalerweise ziemlich vollgestopft mit Terminen. Oft habe ich zahlreiche Treffen und Hunderte von Mails zu beantworten. Für jeden Tag stelle ich sicher, dass keine Zeit verschwendet wird.“
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_q0tJsFiuo[/embedyt]
►Von Vorurteilen befreien
„Die Welt gibt viele Möglichkeiten selbst die am tiefsten verwurzelten Überzeugungen zu verändern. Nur so kann man sein ganzes Potenzial nutzen und werteneutral handeln.“
►Träume lebendig werden lassen
„Als Unternehmer wird man nicht geboren, sondern es lässt sich erlernen. Als Dozent an einer Uni in Dubai weiß ich, dass man von seinem Können überzeugt sein muss. So kann man auch trotz großer etablierter Firmen zum Marktführer werden.“
Mit Rihanna ist Yalcin durch den Concierge-Service befreundet, den er besitzt.
►Vorbereitung ist der Schlüssel
„Bevor man beginnt, sollte man sich selbst folgende Fragen beantworten: Löst die Idee ein Problem? Kann man die Idee profitabel auf einem Markt platzieren? Wie viel Geld bringt die Idee? Ist man leidenschaftlich? Gibt es irgendwelche Auffälligkeiten in der Gesetzgebung? Ist es das richtige Timing?“
►Der Weg zu jedem Geschäft
„Man muss seinen unternehmerischen Geist identifizieren, die Geschäftsidee ausarbeiten und bewerten, einen Businessplan entwerfen, ein talentiertes Team suchen und eine sicher Finanzierung auf die Beine stellen.“
Nach außen scheint es wie eine Bilderbuchkarriere, aber Yalcins Weg zeigt: Er kann auch steinig sein. Man darf sich nur nicht abbringen lassen.
Source: Bild
How to make it
I came to Dubai with a backpack. This is to my teacher who said I would at most become a used car trader. Well, he was right. We are now the largest in the country, after evaluating 3 million cars worth 15 billion USD. This is to the bullies, who laughed at me not having the best clothes growing up. Well, we have built the first and largest online fashion store in the Middle East, then merged with Souq.com, which has been bought by Amazon.com last year, in its largest acquisition ever outside the US. Don’t let haters ever stop you. Make them motivate you. Never hate back. Love always wins.
Over the past decades of my life, I have met thousands of different people, hundreds of different characters, tens of different cultures and nationalities, but only 2 different mindsets, when it comes to success, defined as reaching clearly defined, significantly impressive goals: One mindset that leads to success, the other one that doesn’t.
Failure
With 14 years I accepted my first jobs distributing flyers and counting inventory for two supermarket chains in Germany. I miserably failed and got fired within a short period of time. I have then applied as a cashier at Burger King and was rejected.
Passion
A year later I was fascinated by the entertainment industry, especially in the area of event management and ticketing. The sole idea of being able to attract thousands of people to my own event was fuel for my ambition.
Research
I collected every single piece of information I could get. I literally had 2000 physical flyers of different events in my little room, memorizing every single name on the credits.
Network
I understood that building a network is key, but starts with researching leaders within the industry. 1 year later, I knew everyone. I now felt confident enough to organize my own events and started by inviting my circle – those leaders, which I specifically knew will make my events succeed. And it worked.
Starting over
I finished high school and moved to New York to expand my circle. I started from scratch again. Went to a language school to improve my English, while I researched industry leaders and collected flyers.
Opportunity exploitation
I figured that there was an opportunity for foreigners like me. The majority of event managers in New York were advertising within their circles, however I have seen that 600 of my fellow students had no clue about events in the city, as they just arrived and couldn’t even speak English properly. It was my time to approach the industry leaders. I had something they needed. I had 600 followers, if they gave me a foreign students deal on the tickets. It worked! The biggest event location in New York City was my new home. I won the bid as I had most weekly followers.
Purpose
I came back to Germany to enroll for university, actually searching for the right major to study. My mother is a lawyer, my father is a doctor. I thought I should study something “solid” like they did.
My father gave me one advice: “Study something you are passionate about. We as a family will always stand behind you. This will make you succeed and strong.”
This sounded so standard for me back then. I didn’t even realize its importance. I chose medicine, more specifically; I wanted to become an aesthetic plastic surgeon. It promised a lot of money and was glamorous. I researched again. Talked to industry leaders. They disagreed. I ignored. I applied for an obligatory, unpaid nursing job in the central hospital. I got accepted and miserably failed. It was a lie. It wasn’t my purpose. It was just a role.
I started over and applied for the most prestigious private business school in Germany. I was obsessed with getting accepted. I researched, prepared and passed all admission tests. I never would have settled for second best.
My mind-set was changed.
My father’s words were always in my head.
– It made me a leader.
– It allowed me to go all-in.
– It made me independent.
– It made me confident.
– It was and still is a value-driven strength, which no one can take away.
I have started many companies with this mind-set and it is our mind-set, which sets our companies apart. It is your responsibility to awaken this mind-set in your children, your little brothers and sisters, in your employees and friends. It will make them leaders and succeed.
Remember, it takes a leader to create leaders.
Sleepless nights
My biggest time-waster is sleep. I don’t like the concept of sleeping, so I try to minimise it, but fail due to natural reasons. If you think about the fact that a smartphone needs one hour to recharge and work through 23 hours and our bodies need seven hours to work 17 hours consciously, I am quite disappointed by our progress.
No rest for the wicked
My days are usually quite busy. I often have numerous meetings to attend, hundreds of messages to deal with and I travel frequently. For each day I make sure that I have specifically planned accomplishments.
“THE WORLD IS FULL OF OPPORTUNITIES TO CHANGE EVEN THE MOST DEEPLY ROOTED CONVICTIONS WE MIGHT HAVE” – Saygin Yalcin
Making dreams come alive
I am a course lecturer and I feel that the challenge goes some way to creating an environment that fosters a can-do culture and a belief that business and entrepreneurship is not something that one is born with, but can be learnt. A lot of my students are entrepreneurial and I try to awaken that entrepreneurship. I am just trying to show them how to make those dreams come alive.
Anything is possible
The world is full of opportunities to change even the most deeply rooted convictions we might have. Think of quantum mechanics, for example: when this was discovered a century ago, the status quo was disrupted and classical physics was not the only game in town anymore. Particles started behaving like waves, being in super positions, and conscious observations had an influence over reality. Common sense was suddenly not applicable anymore. This is just like entrepreneurship – nothing is impossible. If the behaviour of a tiny subatomic particle can change our world, then we can too. With this mind-set, it allowed all our initially small teams to become leaders of markets that were traditionally led by huge incumbents.
Embrace every opportunity
If there’s one thing a businessman should never do, it is overstep the line of ethics. My advice to young entrepreneurs is to surround yourself with intelligent, ethical and ambitious people. Go out there and embrace every opportunity. You only need to hit once, but can fail many times.
Preparation is the key.
Before you start, answer the following six questions:
- Does your idea solve a problem?
- Is the idea profitably scalable?
- How strong is the monetisation?
- Are you passionate about it?
- Are there any regulatory showstoppers? l
- Is it the right timing?
Road to any business
- Identify your entrepreneurial spirit.
- Identify and evaluate your business idea.
- Write a numerical business plan.
- Attract a talented team.
- Secure financing for your business.
- Focus on business intelligence.
About the Author
SayginYalcin Saygin is the Founder & CEO of the Middle East's (ME) first & largest car buying service, SellAnyCar.com and Founder of the first & largest online private shopping club in the ME, Sukar.com, which has been acquired by Souq.com, making him Partner at the Souq.com and Jabbar Internet Group, becoming the largest ecommerce company in the Arab world, with 3000+ employees. In its largest acquisition outside the US to date, Amazon.com has acquired Souq.com Group. He has been selected as a UBS Industry Leader, a network of Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. He was also Advisory Board Member & Academic Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at the Canadian University of Dubai. He was referred to as "the region's online business guru" by the National newspaper in the UAE, while Arabian Business named him as "one of the region's finest young entrepreneurs and a major part of the entrepreneurial scene in recent years". Fortune magazine (mag) named him in the 40 under 40 list, as one of the most influential young people in business, Entrepreneur mag ME awarded SellAnyCar.com, with Saygin at its helm, as the "Fastest Growing Company in the ME", while the National newspaper sees it among a handful of tech companies to "have the potential to break the $1bn barrier". In a cover story, Entrepreneur mag ME titled him as "undoubtedly one of the youngest & most successful internet entrepreneurs in the ME”, awarded SellAnyCar.com as "Technology Innovator of the Year”, while Khaleej Times awarded him as the Technology Leader. Gulf Business selected him as 1 of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs in ME. In a cover story, Arabian Business counts him as 1 of the most successful entrepreneurs to call Dubai home. During the World Government Summit, HH Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed, Minister of Interior of the UAE, presented Saygin as an inspiring story for the country, in the presence of world leaders, incl. HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
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